The last week of my life has left with me with so much to contemplate and write about, I have the feeling this post will be scattered and may be confusing for those without my experience. My apologies, if you bear with me, as I write more in the coming days, I think there will be many insights after the brief glimpse I had into another existence. I spent a week on a farm in North Carolina and it was such an amazing experience that I am conflicted as I transition back into my life in Baltimore. There are things that are important to me that I realize I had forgotten about after spending so much time in an urban environment. Being in nature and working with a group of incredible people has left me desiring more in my life and questioning how to incorporate it. Last week I didn't need to set an alarm, it was a week where I awoke and could see mountains and wild turkeys wandering through the fog outside my window. A week where meals were cooked and eaten together with folks who began as strangers, but quickly became friends. 8 new people entered my life who are amazing and even though the time I spent with them was brief, I feel incredibly blessed to have met them and hope our paths will cross again. I spent a week working outside in the sun, digging, weeding, working as a team, creating something and working in nature. There is such a difference in the quality of life when one has to use one's body to work instead of sitting at a desk all day. I loved it. And afterward there was time to relax, I could stop working, there was not always something else to finish at night. No laptop to continue working on, nothing that I felt I should do - just contra dancing, drum circles, games and music. It was beautiful. The challenge now is how to incorporate all that I learned, all that I remembered into life in the city. When I moved to Baltimore from New York, I was impressed by how much more green this city was in comparison, but compared to the mountains, I realize it is lacking. How do we remain connected to nature in an urban environment? How do we remain connected to our bodies if we spend most of our time sitting at a desk? How do we really work together and develop deep relationships if we do not have to physically work together on anything? I will write about the connection of physical activity and intimacy in the coming days. I will write about the environment and choosing to live responsibly in it. I will write about eating good food and things that one has grown. All of these things and more opened my heart last week, made me feel again that there are great and wonderful things in the world if we are open to them. I hadn't realized how closed off I had become, how much hurt I had been harboring, how much I needed and wanted that I had forgotten how to articulate. It makes me think that making sure I have time to be in nature, to be with plants, to find time to relax with the ones that I care about and work with them doing meaningful things is important. How balance can be found just by making sure to do these things. I will definitely be working on a farm again, I think that the experiences I have in doing so will inform my work in the city, make it that much more effective and me that much stronger.

Thank you everyone that made last week possible! And if you have the chance, go work on a farm! I found my farm through WWOOF - World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms. Find more about them here: http://www.wwoof.org/